school dance

[ajkroy]

Which is why I turned down Xaverian Bros and stayed in public school. Keep your mythological teachings to yourself. If I want to read about deities, The Mighty Thor is published once a month by Marvel Comics.

Wait...this quote was for me? I am an atheist who teaches in the secular public school system. I have no idea why you wrote this to me.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

That said - I have seen far too many public schools crush students academically, mentally, and certainly legally. I welcome your difference of opinion, but I will vote to disband, defund, or destroy public schools at every opportunity until and unless they are changed from "free" daycare to actual institutions of education. They aren't.

Thank you for pointing out the absurdity of "one size fits all" opinions. I live in one of the largest 15 cities in the country. The big city school system is horrid. The suburban districts range from fair or poor to every bit as good if not better than any private school in the area. I've lived enough places to know that this isn't due to a lack of quality private schools here, but the extremely high quality of a handful of the public systems.

"Most" is an arguable value judgement. "All" makes one come off as a fringe wackadoodle, as it's provably untrue. There are thousands of quality public school systems throughout the nation.


On topic, I would be somewhat uncomfortable with the concept of the testing, but my high school student was mature enough to understand the reason for said discomfort and use that as part of his decision to attend or not to attend.

 

[TigerD]

Just as I clearly wasn't referring to you as one of the barely literate parents who shouldn't homeschool (you are obviously articulate and form well thought-out arguments), I know you aren't referring to me as one of the education majors who cannot write a coherent paragraph. I never said that NO parents are qualified to homeschool -- but I think too many parents do it for religious reasons rather than educational ones. In those cases, you have poorly educated parents who don't know what they don't know teaching their own kids, usually just to isolate them from this religion or that race or that circumstance. It is their legal right, but it is the children who are ultimately left behind.

We don't home school. I send my kids to private schools for a reason. But, if the choice was public school or home school, they're home schooled.
I'd like to add to my previous comments that every state is different and even school districts within states can show extreme differences. There are some great public school teachers. There are also some really bad ones and the consumers of public education do not have the ability to choose which school they want their kids to attend.

One point where we do agree is that education should happen at home. I see my job as an extension of the cumulative education my students have achieved up to this point. Many parents treat school as the only learning environment, which means you have kids entering school at varying levels of educational development. My son went to public school, as did I. Both of us learned to read when were three. You know why? Because my parents taught me and I taught my son. He now has a 3.9 a the end of his sophomore year in college, which is, ironically, private (but I think our debate has been up to the secondary level, right?).

Yes. We definitely agree on the above points.

I am a dedicated teacher. I stay after school every day for hours beyond dismissal with students, and I work hard to create thoughtful and engaging lessons. I work in a school that is over 80% free lunch, so I cringed a bit at the public school-to-prison comment. Many of my students cannot wait until Monday because they get breakfast and lunch at school and often don't eat all weekend. I know our system isn't perfect, but if we didn't have the public school system, so many of my kids would be lost. Lost to gangs, lost to prison, lost to the never ending cycle of welfare. And this is the next generation who will be running things in the not-too-distant future. For my part, I want to cram as much knowledge into their brains as I possibly can as long as they let me.

I respect your intentions and efforts. I also tilt at windmills all day. This isn't the time or place to solve the nation's woes with poverty, education, gangs, and absentee parents. The issues are interconnected and far to complicated for proper evaluation on an internet board.

TD

 

[Silverplum]

Many of my students cannot wait until Monday because they get breakfast and lunch at school and often don't eat all weekend.

No one has ever explained to me how this can be. There are always churches and city services and welfare and various handouts. There are laws against neglect and child protective services and mandatory reporters. I don't understand how it is that children don't eat all weekend.

On the same hand, I don't know why the schools have to feed children at all. Feeding and clothing and housing children are all jobs of their parents.

I don't accept the answers of "...their parents get wasted all weekend..." and "...we have to feed them or they won't learn..." If the parents are too wasted to care for the basic needs of their own children, they should and must lose custody. If parents don't bother to even feed their offspring, they should and must lose custody.

Tilting at windmills, indeed.

 

[Ohiogal]

No one has ever explained to me how this can be. There are always churches and city services and welfare and various handouts. There are laws against neglect and child protective services and mandatory reporters. I don't understand how it is that children don't eat all weekend.

On the same hand, I don't know why the schools have to feed children at all. Feeding and clothing and housing children are all jobs of their parents.

I don't accept the answers of "...their parents get wasted all weekend..." and "...we have to feed them or they won't learn..." If the parents are too wasted to care for the basic needs of their own children, they should and must lose custody. If parents don't bother to even feed their offspring, they should and must lose custody.

Tilting at windmills, indeed.

Silverplum,
I love you dearly but I disagree with you and understand it. Food stamps are less than $10 a day for a family of four for three meals. Churches and city services are strapped in my area. Every weekend the local school district sends home "blessings backpacks" for kids. It is not because parents are druggies or wasted -- but rather because they are poor. I am used to dealing with the most poverty stricken of the population. The children should NOT suffer for the "sins" of the parents. No Kid Hungry exists because children go hungry and the federal government keeps voting to restrict and decrease benefits for the federal food stamp and other federal food programs.

 

[Silverplum]

Silverplum,
I love you dearly but I disagree with you and understand it. Food stamps are less than $10 a day for a family of four for three meals. Churches and city services are strapped in my area. Every weekend the local school district sends home "blessings backpacks" for kids. It is not because parents are druggies or wasted -- but rather because they are poor. I am used to dealing with the most poverty stricken of the population. The children should NOT suffer for the "sins" of the parents. No Kid Hungry exists because children go hungry and the federal government keeps voting to restrict and decrease benefits for the federal food stamp and other federal food programs.

I don't have a "problem" with poor people, nor do I begrudge them services and charities. At all. I donate and serve, like a normal/decent human being.

I'm simply saying that I don't understand how parents sleep or eat themselves if they are not feeding and clothing their children. That's failure on a most elemental level. I can't figure it out.

But of course, this has nothing to do with dancing.

 

[LdiJ]

I don't have a "problem" with poor people, nor do I begrudge them services and charities. At all. I donate and serve, like a normal/decent human being.

I'm simply saying that I don't understand how parents sleep or eat themselves if they are not feeding and clothing their children. That's failure on a most elemental level. I can't figure it out.

But of course, this has nothing to do with dancing.

The poorest people don't eat much at all so that there is more for their children. Part of the problem is even finding a way to obtain transportation to even get someplace where food could be provided. It takes money for gas or the bus, and you cannot expect young children to walk several miles with a parent or to be left home alone so the parent can make that walk.

And sometimes its not that the children had nothing to eat at all, all weekend, its maybe that all they got was ramen noodles and they were starving for something more. I have watched young children gobble up salads, and fruit and even veggies at school because their bodies craved the nutrition. One thing that the cafeteria manager at my child's elementary school told me was that on Mondays basically every tray was polished clean.

I used to occasionally treat my daughter's class to pizza or other things for lunch on a Friday, and I always made sure that I brought in way too much, and plenty of zip lock bags, so that the kids that needed it could take home doggie bags.

 

[stealth2]

I don't have a "problem" with poor people, nor do I begrudge them services and charities. At all. I donate and serve, like a normal/decent human being.

I'm simply saying that I don't understand how parents sleep or eat themselves if they are not feeding and clothing their children. That's failure on a most elemental level. I can't figure it out.

But of course, this has nothing to do with dancing.

Most parents in these situations DON'T eat or sleep. They feed their children first - if they can. It's easy to say that $10 of rice and beans go a long way - not as easy to make it happen if you commute 2 hours by bus, for example. That's two hours each way.

I can't tell you how many times I went w/o so my kids could get the nutritious meal. Or how many nights I spent awake trying to figure out how to juggle bills so they got what they needed. MOST poor people don't indulge themselves at the expense of their kids.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

Most parents in these situations DON'T eat or sleep. They feed their children first - if they can. It's easy to say that $10 of rice and beans go a long way - not as easy to make it happen if you commute 2 hours by bus, for example. That's two hours each way.

I can't tell you how many times I went w/o so my kids could get the nutritious meal. Or how many nights I spent awake trying to figure out how to juggle bills so they got what they needed. MOST poor people don't indulge themselves at the expense of their kids.

I'll be happy to read any scientifically validated proof of the word "most" in your claim.